Wow!<br>It seems that "someone" is trying to rub Linux out.<br>While I am not yet an efficianado of Linux, I am happy<br>that certain people kept talking to me over the years.<br>I finally set up my own Linux system and can now at <br>
least do that much (as long as you give me a CD...lol)<br>I think it is a shame that such things are taking place.<br>I feel that the main way that Linux will survive is through<br>small grass roots gatherings.<br>It seems that there may be a need to simply begin to <br>
fund raise for Linux as is done with other organizations <br>so that decent presentations on a larger scale than just <br>the grass roots level can thrive.<br>I have heard that there is even a bit of a problem finding <br>
space locally for the local Davis, CA Linux group.<br>I hope that this stops being an obstacle.<br>My wish is that Linux becomes a complete <br>and utter force to be reckoned with as an OS on a global level.<br>Namaste'<br>
Scot<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 11:29 PM, Joseph Arruda <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:joseph.arruda@gmail.com">joseph.arruda@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
The hyperbole aside, the show was neither good nor bad. It was dull,<br>
but there were vendors there doing thing useful to 'the enterprise'<br>
(which in this economy is the only people worth attracting). 'the<br>
enterprise' tends to be dull to most LUG folken (if we are being<br>
remotely honest).<br>
<br>
Now, that being said, the show was otherwise lackluster, but some<br>
vendors (Cloudera particularly) looked interesting, but I am biased<br>
because we are entertaining playing with Hadoop where I work now. I<br>
liked seeing Talend and SQLStream, etc. But I am coming from the<br>
position of someone looking at actual offerings for my own projects that<br>
I manage.<br>
<br>
There were vendors I though had interesting but otherwise moot offerings<br>
(i.e. Cubetree, which could just as well be replaced by Wordpress MU<br>
with some additional plugins or with an adapted GForge/Joomla/Drupal<br>
rig), but lets face it, the real reason I went was to party with old VA<br>
Linux alumni. :)<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
ja<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
Bill Kendrick wrote:<br>
> Darth's post to SacLUG about this year's OpenSource World<br>
> (previously known as LinuxWorld).<br>
><br>
> It sounds like it was even worse than I had expected, based on various<br>
> random people complaining in their Facebook statuses a few days ago.<br>
><br>
><br>
> Seriously? Exhibit hall only one 1hr at a time?<br>
><br>
> -bill!<br>
><br>
> ----- Forwarded message from Darth Borehd <<a href="mailto:darth.borehd@gmail.com">darth.borehd@gmail.com</a>> -----<br>
><br>
> Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:53:21 -0700<br>
> From: Darth Borehd <<a href="mailto:darth.borehd@gmail.com">darth.borehd@gmail.com</a>><br>
> Subject: [Lug-nuts] The Death of Linuxworld<br>
> To: General SacLUG discussing <<a href="mailto:lug-nuts@saclug.org">lug-nuts@saclug.org</a>><br>
> Reply-To: General SacLUG discussing <<a href="mailto:lug-nuts@saclug.org">lug-nuts@saclug.org</a>><br>
><br>
> Linuxworld died sometime at the end of 2008.<br>
><br>
> I have been a regular attendee for roughly 10 years now. I only<br>
> missed the 2005 conference because my daughter was born on the same<br>
> day. I was a huge fan of LinuxWorld, I was an organiser of several<br>
> LinuxWorld attending groups, I have a closet full of material from<br>
> past Linuxworlds. Senator, you are no Linuxworld.<br>
><br>
> IDG claims they merely renamed it to "OpenSource World/NextGen Data<br>
> Center/CloudWorld" but it's quite obviously they were out to remove<br>
> anything that resembled the Linuxworld and try to pawn off a new<br>
> conference as its successor. It's not. Not even close.<br>
><br>
> Let me explain why.<br>
><br>
> * The name change. First thing you notice is the confusing<br>
> buzzword-heavy new name where 3 conference share equal size and space<br>
> on the banner. Not only is it aesthetically unappealing, its<br>
> confusing what the focus is going to be. Sure they combined<br>
> conferences before, but they were always auxiliary riders latched onto<br>
> LinuxWorld. It was the king and quite obviously the main event.<br>
> There is no main event any more.<br>
><br>
> * The size. The conference was moved from the main Moscone Hall where<br>
> it had resided for about 10 years and is now in a smaller space on the<br>
> west side. The main Moscone Hall now sits empty. The exhibit hall is<br>
> now .25 of the size of what it was in 2008 and even smaller if you<br>
> compare it to previous years. The number of conference/lecture rooms<br>
> are roughly the same. There are no testing centers for LPI<br>
> certification or workshops.<br>
><br>
> * The exhibit hall. This is the *worst* part of the whole conference.<br>
> Now about a quarter of the size. Just one of the major vendor<br>
> squares from 2008 would have taken up the size of a half dozen booths<br>
> at the 2009 conference. Gone are a lot of the usual exhibitors from<br>
> years past. No VMWare, IBM, HP, CDW, Dice, Intel, AMD, Motorola,<br>
> O'Reilly, and dozens of others. Of those that were there, you<br>
> quickly found they were staffed with salespeople and temp presenters<br>
> hired off the street. Dell was there. Sun was there. Both had<br>
> competent programmers and engineers to actually talk to but the<br>
> exhibit spaces were reduced to the size of two small booth put<br>
> together. The most frustrating thing is that the exhibit hall was<br>
> only open for about an hour at a time. Yes, you heard that right.<br>
> After only an hour inside, security guards come and herd you into<br>
> lecture rooms for the next 3 hours until the exhibits open again.<br>
><br>
> * Alcohol. During the last hour, they served free beer. It would<br>
> seem to me to be a stupid move liability-wise to serve alcohol to<br>
> people who might be getting in cars and driving away when it closes.<br>
> Also, they were not checking IDs and I personally met a young man who<br>
> said he was 19 and had several beers already. Beyond that, it was<br>
> just annoying to see drunken people stumbling around. It wasn't even<br>
> good beer. I don't drink beer, but I was told that it tasted like<br>
> watered-down Budweiser. Maybe some marketing maven got confused by<br>
> the phrase "free, as in beer"???<br>
><br>
> * Almost no Linux. Roughly 3/4th of the entire conference was Windows<br>
> oriented. Increase that if you include Cloud Computing products. The<br>
> only distro present was Ubuntu. BSD guys were there if you want to<br>
> stretch to include them. Even Sun did their presentation on a<br>
> Macintosh. Almost all other vendors ran their presentation on Windows<br>
> XP or Vista.<br>
><br>
> * .orgs treated like lepers. They were all forced into a small room<br>
> isolated from the main exhibit hall like the conference promoters were<br>
> ashamed of their presence. They didn't even get booths. They had to<br>
> share small tables. Most didn't even show up. No slashdot, gentoo,<br>
> debian, linuxfund, sourceforge, fedora, etcetera. The only two active<br>
> tables were Clonezilla and Haiku OS. A complete insult to the<br>
> non-profit community.<br>
><br>
> * Attempts to turn away "undesirable" people. An environmental<br>
> engineer I met at the conference was initially denied entrance because<br>
> his "job did not include direct influence on the purchasing of IT<br>
> products" and it would be a "waste of time for the exhibitors to even<br>
> talk to [[him]]" (note: direct quotes except they said "you"). The<br>
> fact he had pre-registered, attended previous Linuxworlds and made<br>
> arrangements to attend made no difference. Only after the rest of his<br>
> "desired target audience" threatened to leave did they grudgingly<br>
> grant him access.<br>
><br>
> * Lectures were non-technical. Not only non-technical, but they were<br>
> basic, vague, buzzword-laden, and vendor specific. In other words,<br>
> they were sales pitches--complete with flashy lights and Powerpoint<br>
> presentations with terms like "in the Cloud", "Paradigm-shifting", and<br>
> "Web 2.0". Any attempts to ask technical questions were usually<br>
> deferred to "offline" discussions. What was left was the equivalent<br>
> of sitting through an hour-long infomercial. The only exceptions to<br>
> this was the presentation by the California Secretary of State about<br>
> Open Source Voting, a somewhat interesting panel about open source on<br>
> netbooks, and an amusing "evolution of desktop" given by Jono from<br>
> Ubuntu.<br>
><br>
> * Outdone by a 6-booth career fair. Dice had set up their own<br>
> unrelated career fair a few doors down. We stepped in and got a small<br>
> taste of what Linuxworld used to be like. Amazon had a C programming<br>
> puzzle up for people to solve. Phoenix Bios was there to recruit new<br>
> employees but were happen to just discuss the motherboard BIOS<br>
> subjects as well. They had prizes and cool things to show with<br>
> friendly and intelligent people.<br>
><br>
> In closing, I do not plan to attend this conference any more. I have<br>
> to make a lot of arrangements months in advance to be able to attend<br>
> and the pathetic excuse of a conference it has become is not worth it<br>
> to me. Linuxworld used to be more than just about Linux. It was the<br>
> IT departments of some companies showing off their latest stuff to<br>
> other IT people. Geeks talking to geeks. Not only was it cool and<br>
> fun, but I feel it did a better job of promoting those products.<br>
> There are still some vendor contacts that I maintain from the<br>
> conference and use professionally. Many of the products I proposed<br>
> and purchased for work I remember first seeing at Linuxworld. The<br>
> "OpenSource World/NextGen Data Center/CloudWorld" just doesn't do<br>
> that. I deeply saddened, but I must declare, that for me, the mighty<br>
> Linuxworld has died.<br>
> _______________________________________________<br>
><br>
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